Meze

Meze Audio are based in Baia Mare, in the north of Romania, and produce some of the more carefully made headphones in serious circulation. The company was founded by Antonio Meze in 2011, originally as a design exercise — a single pair of headphones in machined wood and metal, made the way the founder thought a headphone ought to look and feel — and has, over a decade, grown into one of the more respected names in the high-end headphone field.

Why we carry Meze

Most of what Hidden Home Technology does is rooms: cinemas, listening rooms, whole-house audio. Headphones sit slightly to one side of that, and we are selective about the ones we stock. Meze earns its place for three reasons.

The first is that the headphones are repairable. Almost every part of a Meze — pads, headband, cables, in the flagships even the driver assemblies — comes apart with ordinary tools and can be replaced. In a category where a great many expensive headphones are effectively disposable once a driver fails, that matters, and it is the kind of engineering decision we notice.

The second is that they are honest about what they are. There is no false claim of studio neutrality on a headphone voiced for pleasure, and no pretence that a closed-back is an open-back. You get told what the product is for.

The third is simpler: they are a genuine option for the client whose listening room is a hotel, a train, or a house with sleeping children in it. We install a great many systems that cannot be turned up after nine o’clock. A good headphone is not a consolation prize in that situation — it is the answer.

The range, and who each one is for

99 Neo — around £189. Closed-back, ABS shells, the ear-pad-suspended headband that runs through the whole catalogue. The one we suggest for a first serious pair, or for a second pair that lives in a bag.

99 Classics Walnut — around £279. The same architecture in CNC-machined walnut. Closed-back, warm, forgiving of ordinary source equipment, and comfortable for hours. It punches noticeably above its price for build quality and tonal honesty, and it is the headphone we most often recommend to somebody who is not yet sure how deep they want to go.

109 Pro — around £769. Open-back dynamic. A real step up in resolution and openness, and the point in the catalogue where the source equipment starts to matter. Open-back means it leaks sound both ways: excellent at a desk in a room of one’s own, wrong on a train.

Liric II — around £1,899. A closed-back planar magnetic built around a smaller variant of the Rinaro isodynamic driver. This is the headphone for the listener who wants the Meze flagship character in a form that does not disturb the rest of the house — and it is easier to drive than most planars in its class, which makes it unusually practical away from a desk.

Empyrean II — around £2,749. Open-back planar magnetic, and the current generation of the headphone that made Meze’s reputation at the top end. The original Empyrean was the first commercial headphone to use the Rinaro isodynamic driver, engineered and made by Rinaro in Ukraine — a two-part driver array with separate windings for the region nearest the ear. It is a large, comfortable, unhurried-sounding headphone.

Elite — around £3,749. The no-compromise statement, built on a hybrid-array evolution of the same driver. This is a headphone whose only meaningful peers cost considerably more.

What actually matters when you buy one

Open or closed comes before everything else. An open-back headphone in a shared room is a mistake regardless of how good it is, and a closed-back at a solitary desk is a needless compromise. Decide where you will actually listen, not where you imagine you will.

Amplification is not optional at the top of the range. The 99 series will run happily from a laptop or a phone. From the 109 Pro upwards, and certainly for the planars, a proper headphone amplifier and a decent DAC are the difference between hearing the headphone and hearing a fraction of it. We would rather sell a Liric II with the right amplifier than an Elite without one, and we will say so.

Pads change the sound. On the planar models the earpad material is part of the tuning, not a comfort accessory. If you have heard an Empyrean or an Elite somewhere and it did not sound as described, the pads are the first thing to check.

Budget for the cable last, not first. Meze sell balanced and alternative cables for most of the range. They are worth considering once the amplifier and source are settled — and not before.

Where they sit in a house we have wired

A headphone chain is often the quietest, cheapest way to get a genuinely high-end listening experience into a home where a dedicated room is not possible yet. We regularly specify one alongside a whole-house system as the “after the children are in bed” solution, fed from the same streamer as the rest of the house. See the full Head-Fi range, or our headphones for what else we carry.

Hear them

Hidden Home Technology supplies and demonstrates the Meze Audio range from our base in Bath, Somerset. We are a family-run, CEDIA Professional Member business with over twenty-five years in high-end audio and custom installation, serving Bath, Bristol, the Cotswolds, the wider South West, South Wales, London and the Home Counties.

Where can I buy Meze headphones in the UK?
Through Hidden Home Technology in Bath. We carry the 99 series, the 109 Pro, the Liric II, the Empyrean II and the Elite. Get in touch to arrange a listen.

Which Meze headphone should I buy?
If you listen mostly out of the house, closed-back: the 99 Classics at the affordable end, the Liric II at the top. If you listen at a desk in a quiet room, open-back: the 109 Pro, then the Empyrean II, then the Elite. Tell us what you will be driving them from and we will make sure the amplifier is not the limiting factor.

Do I need a headphone amplifier?
For the 99 Neo and 99 Classics, no. For the 109 Pro and above, yes — it is the single biggest determinant of whether you hear what the headphone can do. Have a look at our Head-Fi range, or ask us and we will match one to the headphone and to your source.